Last year's men's finalists Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray had contrasting first round wins on the second day of the Australian Open.
Defending champion Djokovic has marked his first Tour match of the year with a brutal three-set thrashing of Italian Paolo Lorenzi, but Murray struggled through his battle against American Ryan Harrison.
Djokovic reeled off the final 17 games of the match after the Italian had the temerity to break him early in the first set, winning 6-2 6-0 6-0 in a clash on Rod Laver Arena which lasted an hour at 32 minutes.
It was high level tennis from the man who won three of the four Grand Slams last year, as he hit 22 winners and made just 13 unforced errors.
Lorenzi broke in the third game of the first set to lead 2-1, but never got a look after that point as the Serbian broke him in the fourth, sixth and then the eighth and final game of the first set when the Italian double faulted.
Djokovic had a sniff of a quick kill and reeled off three further breaks in the second and three more in the third, which he won in just 23 minutes.
Colombian Santiago Giraldo, who easily outpointed Italian Matteo Viola to make the second round of this tournament for the third consecutive year, is next for Djokovic.
Murray had a tougher time of it against Harrison, who took the first set of the Scot before he rallied to win the match 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-2 in three hours and 12 minutes.
Murray was broken in the fifth and seventh games of the first set and while he broke back and then saved two set points, fell to an early deficit to the world No.77.
The beaten finalist from last year tightened up his serve and would not concede a break point chance again until the fourth set. He levelled things up after an early break in the second set and broke again in the first game of the third to take control.
The match was sewn up with breaks in the third and seventh games of the fourth set, with next up a clash with France's Edouard Rogers-Vasselin, who was handed passage through to the final 64 when Belgian veteran Xavier Malisse retired after losing a first set tie-breaker.
No.5 seed David Ferrer made similarly light work of his first-up assignment, demolishing Portugal's Rui Machada in straight sets.
Ferrer, a semi-finalist in Melbourne 12 months ago, looked in supreme touch as he vanquished the world No.70 6-1 6-4 6-2 in an hour and 44 minutes. He now plays American Ryan Sweeting, who took care of Matthias Bachinger in straight sets.
Djokovic's compatriot Janko Tipsarevic worked his way past Dmitry Tursunov in four sets 5-7 7-6 (14-12) 6-3 6-4 and now plays local wildcard James Duckworth, who defeated Jurgen Zopp.
No.14 seed Gael Monfils cruised his way through against Aussie wildcard playoff winner Marinko Matosevic while his compatriot and No.17 seed Richard Gasquet had a minor blip against Italian Andreas Seppi, before winning 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-1 and now gets Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev, a five-set winner over Mikhail Youzhny.
Lower profile seeds Milos Roanic (23), Kei Nishikori (24), Marcel Granollers Juan Ignacio Chela (27) and Alex Bogomolov Jr (32) also made progress on Tuesday.
Japan's Nishikori got past France's Stephane Robert in three sets, 6-1 7-6